Just Like My Daughter
by Burning Fate
Summary: The Blue Suns attack Shepards squad. Then, back on the Normandy, the Reapers attack. Shepard learns some new things about Zaeed. He had a daughter. In the end, Zaeed will risk his life to protect Shepard.


Longing for Revenge

"I can't breathe...I need to breathe!" Shepard thought, sinking farther into the dark depths of the ocean. She couldn't move her body. Something was holding her down. As she thought of the appearance of death would soon come, a man plummeted through the shield of blue. Shepard's air bubbles hit the man's hand as he paddled toward her with his arm extended out.

'Zaeed...' she thought, staring at his yellow and black armor. His muscular tattooed arm grabbed her by the collar of her uniform and pulled her toward him. As they broke through the waves, he wrapped his arm around her waist and swam to shore. He stepped onto the sand covered land. James, another N7 soldier, ran to them.

"Shepard! Is she alright?" James asked. Shepard coughed up water. Zaeed let go of her and let her lie on all fours, water seeping off of her armor. James patted her on the back. He said something, but Shepard could barely make out what due to the waves as they crashed onto the rocks, sounding like an erupting volcano.

"Y...ard?" was all she could hear. Zaeed grabbed his gun and turned his back on the two of them. He now faced two Blue Sun soldiers, staring at their dead captain.

"You guys waiting for round two?" The soldiers quivered in fear of the old bounty hunter. Zaeed loaded his gun.

"Jessie here is a real talker. Pull the trigger and you can't get her to shut up. And right now, she's feeling pretty dang social."

The Blue Suns waved their arms in front of them. "No! Wait! We don't want any more trouble."

"Well that's just to bad now isn't it? You just threw Commander Shepard into-."

"Zaeed," Shepard said standing up. James's hands hovered over her. "Let them go." Zaeed's face grew dark. His eyes shot at her like a sniper rifle; locked and loaded. He started to remember how he had gotten his scar and his almost white, half blinded right eye.

"You know, Blue Suns are the ones who did this to me." he said, putting a hand on his scar. His cold, armored fingers trailed from above his right eyebrow to the bottom of his jaw.

"She gets that, old man," James said stepping into the conversation. "Their leader is dead. Isn't that enough to get back at them?" Zaeed looked to the ground and kicked at the sand.

"You're just a kid." he murmured, looking up.

"Zaeed, what's done is done. I'm your Commander and you will obey my orders." Shepard said. Zaeed barred his teeth and held his gun closer and tighter, almost breaking his fingers on the hard, dented metal.

"You're such a goody two shoes, Shepard," he said, lowering his gun. The Blue Suns ran back to their shuttle and flew off. Shepard pushed in her earpiece and turned it on.

"Joker," she said, pushing down on it. She looked up at Zaeed who stared at the ground. "We're ready. Come pick us up."

A voice came over the static. "Right away, Commander." Once they were on the ship, James and Zaeed went to their separate rooms. Shepard took the elevator down to the engineering deck where Zaeed was staring out of the window that looked down into the cargo hold.

"Zaeed."

"Don't say it Shepard."

"What?" He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, arms crossed behind his back.

"You're going to tell me that I did the right thing by letting those men go."

"Not exactly."

"What will happen next Shepard? Are you going to start letting criminals out of C-sec?"

"No, I-."

"Or how about the Blood Pack? They only killed your parents, after all."

"Stop Zaeed!" she yelled, clenching her fists. He stared at her with fire filling his eyes, mouth wanting to gape open.

"The Blue Suns are done for anyway. They have no one else to lead them."

"...Dang it, Shepard." he turned his back to her.

"Look, I know you want revenge. You lost your whole team not to mention your eye."

"No, Shepard. That's...not the reason." Shepard, now confused, cocked her eyebrow.

"I...almost lost you, Shepard. One of my closest friends. I would have never been able to live without you."

"...Zaeed...I didn't know...I'm...so sorry." He turned to her and smiled.

"It's alright, Shepard. You just really remind me of my daughter."

"You had a daughter?" Shepard asked. Zaeed looked up and closed his eyes.

"Alicia. She was taken by Collectors. She was...turned into one of those monsters..."

"That must have been heart breaking."

"You don't know what it's like to shoot your own daughter."

"No, but I've shot someone that I loved before." Zaeed looked down at her.

"This war has brought too much death, Shepard. It pulls at our emotions; takes away our loved one's to see if we can still live on without them. It makes us feel like we have no one, that we're alone." Shepard put her hand on his shoulder.

"I'm here for you, Zaeed." He nodded in return.

"And I, you...Heck, Shepard. You're even the youngest person on this ship, but you still put up one heck of a fight. I'm proud of you kid," he said saluting her. The ship suddenly jumped, throwing everyone inside off balance.

"Zaeed!" Shepard yelled, grabbing his hand. The ship stopped and then the alarms went off, red lights flashing.

"Commander!" Joker said coming over the comm. "Reapers are attacking us! They're sending some of their troops in! You better get up here!" Shepard and Zaeed looked at each other, then took off for the elevator. As the door opened on the crew deck, they saw Joker limping out of the cockpit and every other crew member on the deck running for their lives through the chaos. Husks and Brutes broke down the airlock doors and ran in, roaring with hunger. Shepard ran to help Joker walk to the War Asset room as Zaeed protected them from the enemies.

"James! Help me get everyone into the escape pods!"

"Right away, Commander!" he yelled back, running to go open each of the doors. A Marauder ran in behind them, signaling more troops to follow him. Zaeed turned his head to it and his gun started blazing. Many of the troops had fallen to the floor dead, but more and more kept on pouring in, replacing each of the dead bodies. Zaeed fired until his gun became over heated and jammed. He hit it.

"No! No! Worthless piece of-!"

"Zaeed! Help!" Shepard yelled. He turned around, seeing that more troops had gotten in some other way and grouped around Shepard and James.

"Hold on, Shepard!" He yelled as he ran at a pace that he thought his old brittle legs could never reach. Then, he heard the sound of a single gun being loaded. He turned his head to see a Marauder pointing the assault rifle at Shepard.

"No!" He yelled, and ran in front of her as the gun fired. He fell to the hard metal floor, severely wounded.

"Zaeed!" Shepard cried. "James! Do something!" James fired his last shot at the last standing Marauder who had shot down Zaeed. He looked down at Shepard, who was knelt down beside the old, blood stained bounty hunter with a blank expression. He picked Zaeed up and sat him down in an escape pod. Shepard got in behind them and closed the doors. She ripped at her uniform sleeves, making bandages to wrap around Zaeed's wounds. After she had covered every visible, scarring piece of flesh that bled out, she sat across from James and let out a sigh of relief.

"Good work, Lieutenant." she said, giving him a thumbs up.

"No need to thank me, Shepard. I'm...just a kid."


End file.
